Holy Priest Healing Mantras and Musings…

Say these with me now…

v     Renew is my friend

v     I am one with PoM

v     I am one with PoH

v     I will not shield the tank if there is a Disc Priest

v     I will learn to dance within the 5SR

I know you are reading this going..WTF you just respec’d Disc woman?!? And you are right I did and still am Disc spec. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t pick up something out of being holy OR that I totally made this post and forgot to post it before posting the change…*pulls out her halo and tries to distract you* Look the tank is dying! *points behind you*

I would like to go over the choices I made while holy, why I made them and how they affected my healing and play style. Because maybe you are looking at holy with the big eyes going “Maybe its for me?” And if so, and if you were like me having been shadow all the way to 80, I might be of some help with your decision. I can SO be helpful incase you are thinking what I think you are thinking…*grumbles*

Deep Holy

First let’s assume we are looking at a deep holy spec, and skipping lolwell. (This is not to downplay this spell AT ALL! It is still good so long as you can train your team to use it. My current raid group does a wonderful job, but I didn’t want it) If you are willing to take the time to train the group you are running with to run over and click it them rock the house with it! Its great for splash damage healing etc. I decided to sacrifice that point to Desperate Prayer instead. I know a lot of people have QQ about how it used to be a free human spell and isn’t anymore, all I will say to them is…BITE ME!!! *huffs* Hymm of Hope used to be Draenei only and they took it from me and made it suckier and then gave it to all priests…*shakes fist at Blizz*But I love Desperate Prayer regardless of the bad rap it gets on the forums.

I like an OH Sh** heal for myself just me no one else…*cackles* (and incase you wonder I kept this spell in Disc as well for the same reason)

So we are no Light Well and yes Desperate Prayer thus far

Next I decided I wanted Surge of Light, with the Flash Glyph the spell is darn close to Greater Healing for HPS AND it casts faster. Meaning less worry about overheal (because while yes you get the mana back with your talents it takes you out of the 5SR AND you don’t get 100% back so still mana spent) Now to take SoL I have sacrificed another talent that I think is great Healing Prayer, and while I think the mana reduction in this talent is FABULOUS it was a choice of niche for me. I wanted to be the Flash queen. FH back in the Kara days was a the sign of a bad healer. You wanted to down rank your Greater Heal to 1 or 2 and be constantly casting it and stopping the cast if unneeded with a stopcast macro. Those days are long gone. Downranking is gone from the game all together and while stopcasting is a great tool to help you squeek out some more time oo5sr FH has really come into its own as a staple spell (when glyphed) SoL gives me a free hasted FH and with so much causing SoL to proc it seems silly not to take advantage of this. SoL lets me cheat the 5sr for extra mana returns. Is it guarnteed timing? Well no. I’m not about to tell you to start relying on a proc either. What I am saying is that it helps and as a holy priest every little bit helps. It’s like a mini gift you get that pops up for you. Poof! Here you go some more time oo5sr.

Surge of Light over Healing Prayers for more chances oo5sr

Guardian Spirit was taken all the way down at the bottom. I don’t feel like I need to justify why I took the spell. But I do want to say this, if you want to get bigger heals off because you know the damage will be big. Use GS! Don’t fret about using it and not having it up when you really need it. Otherwise you won’t be using and if you don’t use it there is no point in having it. An unused spell not matter how great it is, benefits no one.

Round up:

Holy was all about retraining my reflexes. It is about staying outside the 5 second rule to maximize mana returns. Holy is about having a toolbox full of useful spells and learning when it is best to use each one. Your heals are situational, CoH isn’t the answer to everything, neither is renew. Learn when to use which spell in your game environment to maximize Heal Per Second and your mana.

Give me a few more raids with Disc and I will probably have a musing and mantras post.